Saddam Execution Likely By Sunday

A U.S. military officer tells CBS News that Saddam Hussein will be turned over to the Iraqi government within the next 36 hours. The officer expects that the Iraqis will execute their former leader before the start of the Eid religious holiday on Sunday, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

Saddam’s chief lawyer urged the United States on Thursday not to hand over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities before his expected execution because he is a “war prisoner.”

Lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi called on international and legal organizations, including the Arab League and United Nations, to “rapidly prevent” the Americans from handing Saddam to the Iraqis.

“According to the international conventions it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

A top Vatican official condemned the death sentence against Saddam in a newspaper interview published Thursday, acknowledging the crimes of the ousted Iraqi leader but reiterating that capital punishment goes against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, says Saddam was certainly a human rights violator, but Iraq’s government shouldn’t execute him. “The true test of respect for human rights comes when the human rights of someone who has violated in unspeakable ways the human rights of many millions of people comes into play,” said the group’s Richard Dicker.

CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports Iraqis, members of the coalition and international representatives will witness the execution.

Iraqi officials have said that Saddam’s final moments will be videotaped by the government.

“We will video everything,” National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie said. “All documentation will be videoed. Taking him from his cell to the execution is going to be videoed, and the actual execution will be documented and videoed.”

It’s not clear whether the videotape will be broadcast on Iraqi television.

Rubaie said that the date of the execution has not been made public - in order to avoid sparking violence.

An Iraqi government official says efforts are under way to carry out the death sentence by the end of this month, indicating that they want to do the execution before Eid, which coincides with the New Year.

A top government official disputed the court’s ruling that Saddam must be hanged within 30 days, saying the execution should be held after that time period. The comment comes amid debate over other legal procedures such as whether the presidency is required to approve the execution.

“The law does not say within 30 days, it says after the lapse of 30 days,” said Busho Ibrahim, deputy justice minister. There was no immediate explanation for the conflicting claims.